diff --git a/drivers/md/raid5.c b/drivers/md/raid5.c
index 4d63773ee73a..f96dea975fa5 100644
--- a/drivers/md/raid5.c
+++ b/drivers/md/raid5.c
@@ -514,7 +514,7 @@ static void ops_complete_biofill(void *stripe_head_ref)
 	struct stripe_head *sh = stripe_head_ref;
 	struct bio *return_bi = NULL;
 	raid5_conf_t *conf = sh->raid_conf;
-	int i, more_to_read = 0;
+	int i;
 
 	pr_debug("%s: stripe %llu\n", __FUNCTION__,
 		(unsigned long long)sh->sector);
@@ -522,16 +522,14 @@ static void ops_complete_biofill(void *stripe_head_ref)
 	/* clear completed biofills */
 	for (i = sh->disks; i--; ) {
 		struct r5dev *dev = &sh->dev[i];
-		/* check if this stripe has new incoming reads */
-		if (dev->toread)
-			more_to_read++;
 
 		/* acknowledge completion of a biofill operation */
-		/* and check if we need to reply to a read request
-		*/
-		if (test_bit(R5_Wantfill, &dev->flags) && !dev->toread) {
+		/* and check if we need to reply to a read request,
+		 * new R5_Wantfill requests are held off until
+		 * !test_bit(STRIPE_OP_BIOFILL, &sh->ops.pending)
+		 */
+		if (test_and_clear_bit(R5_Wantfill, &dev->flags)) {
 			struct bio *rbi, *rbi2;
-			clear_bit(R5_Wantfill, &dev->flags);
 
 			/* The access to dev->read is outside of the
 			 * spin_lock_irq(&conf->device_lock), but is protected
@@ -558,8 +556,7 @@ static void ops_complete_biofill(void *stripe_head_ref)
 
 	return_io(return_bi);
 
-	if (more_to_read)
-		set_bit(STRIPE_HANDLE, &sh->state);
+	set_bit(STRIPE_HANDLE, &sh->state);
 	release_stripe(sh);
 }